Issue
Analysis No. 22
September 19, 2006
IS
ARROYO PRE-EMPTING EUROPEAN RIGHTS MISSION 'S WORK?
It would be interesting to watch how the Arroyo government would
deal with the international rights mission which the President claims
to have invited to look into the politically-motivated killings
in the Philippines . The monitoring mission, which will come from
Europe , will look into the human rights situation in the country
as well as how state investigations, like that of the Melo Commission,
are held in connection with the cases.
The
mission surfaced during President Gloria M. Arroyo's trip to Europe
last week where she was berated by the Finnish president and hounded
by protest actions over her government's failure to stop the killings
and abductions which Philippine and foreign investigations reveal
are perpetrated by government forces. In fact days before her trip,
European governments such as Finland and France had expressed concern
over the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines
. Amnesty International (AI) in its 51-page report on the Philippines
pointed to the involvement of Arroyo's security forces in the crimes
and criticized her inability to rein in her military and police
forces.
Thus it was international pressure and the threat of possible reduction
if not total loss of European ODA (Official Development Assistance)
and not Mrs. Arroyo's own initiative, as claimed by National Security
Adviser Norberto Gonzales that prompted her to yield in favor of
an international watch. Based on reports, aside from AI member-countries
of the European Commission (EC) such as Finland , Belgium and Spain
are joining the mission.
Aside from Nobel Peace prize-recipient AI whose credentials as a
rights watchdog are often taken as beyond reproach, the proposed
mission will likely represent European governments. That being so,
the results of the mission may have far-reaching implications on
the future of European aid to the Arroyo government. European governments,
especially those from the European Union, claim to tie their aid
to a country's human rights record. That, of course, can also be
disputed since EU countries are involved in states and in armed
conflicts, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan , where the human rights
situation is as grim.
UNHRC
The proposed European mission somewhat runs parallel to or complements
efforts at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate
the rights-related cases in the Philippines. Families of victims
of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances, together
with the human rights alliance Karapatan, were set to file complaints
before the UN body in Geneva on Sept. 19.
The Arroyo government is also under pressure to allow five UN Rapporteurs
who have been sent by the UNHRC to the Philippines but whose visit
requests have been put on hold for the past two months by the Department
of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
What
the European mission really intends to do and how it will conduct
its monitoring remains unclear. But it would be prudent to mention
the objectives and parameters of an effective investigation as defined
by AI in order to guide the mission's work. In a memorandum sent
by AI to Mrs. Arroyo and which was reiterated in a meeting held
in London late last week, the AI's secretary general, Irene Khan,
urged the Philippine president to ensure that "the Melo Commission's
inquiry into political killings is transparent, independently conducted,
and leads to accountability and justice for the victims."
Furthermore, said Ms. Khan, "The Commission should take a victim-centered
approach, with justice for the victims as paramount…and should
propose reforms which would prevent the repetition of past human
rights violations, whether that means reforming laws and institutional
practices or strengthening the justice system."
The
AI secretary general also said that the investigation should "help
restore conditions for the peace process between the government
and the communists to be restarted, based on respect for human rights
by all sides." The success of the European rights mission will
also have to factor in whether the Arroyo government – whose
human rights record is the subject of international outrage –
will cooperate. Arroyo, through her national security adviser, is
reportedly trying to pre-empt the international group's task by
asking them to look instead into the New People's Army's "killings
fields" to prove that the communists are to blame for the current
human rights violations as part of its "internal purge."
Coincidentally, the Melo Commission has just said it would investigate
"all cases of human rights violations," including complaints
filed by the AFP and police against the NPA. This, according to
local rights groups, only proves allegations that the commission
will only be a forum for whitewashing and saving Arroyo from her
possible culpability in the killings.
The prospective members of the European mission should be sensitive
to any manipulation by the Arroyo government and its security authorities
that will only jeopardize its mission. For the international mission
to be credible, it should look closely into the investigative process
of the Melo Commission observing in particular whether, as a probe
body, it is independent, impartial and not beholden to the wishes
of its appointing authority. Its credibility will also be measured
by holding its own investigation of the given cases. As a first
step, it should review the results of several fact-finding missions
already done since 2001 up to the present as well as the results
of the proceedings of the International People's Tribunal and the
Citizens Congress for Truth and Accountability which, among others,
looked into the same complaints.
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